The embodiments of the portable profiler and method disclosed herein generally relate to employing the phenomenon of bioluminescence for assessing the environmental characteristics of a marine environment.
For health reasons, it is desirable to test for the presence of toxins in bodies of water, such as lakes, streams, rivers and oceans. A possible technique for detecting the presence of environmental toxins in water may beneficially use the phenomenon of bioluminescence.
Bioluminescence is light generated by a chemical reaction within an organism, such as a marine organism, wherein chemical energy is converted into light energy. The chemical that produces the light is luciferin, which the organism acquires by diet or by internal synthesis. A chemical known as luciferase catalyzes the oxidation of luciferin to produce the light.
Examples of marine organisms that evince bioluminescence include dinoflagellates and zooplankton. Dinoflagellate “blooms” (i.e., population congregations so dense that they discolor the water red or brown to form so-called “red” tides) of these organisms have been observed to degrade water quality and produce toxins harmful to other marine organisms, such as seals. Such toxins can even affect humans such as by paralytic shellfish poisoning. It is known that bioluminescence diminishes in presence of toxic chemicals. However, a problem in the art is lack of a suitable device to sense bioluminescence for detecting toxins in water.